Self Portrait

A footpath and fence in an inner suburb of Melbourne shows an empty box and the artist's shadow inside the box. The box has the word free written on it while the garden in the background is locked behind a fence
Self-portrait 2024-02-08 14:43:20

Carrying a camera eveyrwhere, has had a significant affect on my creative endeavours. Never more so than when I walk. Yesterday I was out and about, on a student excursion. We visited the CCP, which hs an excellent exhibition about the German publishing house Spektor. I may revist the current ‘zine’ I’m working on as a consequence.

On the way home as I meandered towards the nearest tram stop I discovered an empty box on the footpath with the word FREE written on it. Initially I was interested n the irony of an empty box with the word free written on it in a busy urban environment. Then as I shifted composition I noticed my shadow was in the picture. Having one’s shadow in the picture you make is often considered bad form. But I realised I could make a silly little statement by putting the shadow of my head in the box. Two clicks and a few seconds later  and I moved on.


Stuart Murdoch is an Artist and Part time Photo Educator he ruminates on many things photographic. From his own work to others as well as aspects of technology that reflect on the sharing and consumption of Photographs.

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Project’s end?

Eight years after I began making the same picture on each day I was at work. Always at 8:30. Always from the same position. The project has now ended.

The changes in the scene that were most notable, were the weather. Others included the tree.

Often the picture made at 8:30 in no way reflected the weather for that day either before or after 8:30. Which isn’t reflected in the imagery itself.

The linchpin, that helped me decide to end it was the removal the tree. The tree had suffered some damage in the storms we had 10 days or so prior, and in the interim someone decided it needed to be removed entirely.

Here’s the first picture made in February 2014.

And the last made in December 2021.

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